After Investigation Into Chicago’s Handling Of Sexual Assault Allegations Maddening Questions Remain

By Scott Burnside

How sad that on a day of reckoning for the National Hockey League and one of its flagship franchises we are left with far more questions than answers.

How predictable that in a moment when the Chicago Blackhawks and the National Hockey League could have stepped forward to take long overdue ownership of the shameful handling of the sexual assault allegations of a player by a team employee virtually all the key players shirked their responsibilities.

How utterly confounding that following the release of details of an independent investigation into the team’s handling of allegations against video coach Brad Aldrich, who was allowed to stay on the job and celebrate the Stanley Cup win with his victim before leaving for another job where he admitted assaulting a minor, we are still left without answers to critical questions.

Like, how is it that Stan Bowman “steps aside” from his job as GM of the Blackhawks after his role in a meeting about the alleged sexual assault of one of his players that did not yield any action for three weeks? The fact Bowman merely sloughed off all responsibility on former president John McDonough, who is conveniently no longer in the game, in a statement is another tawdry bit of a tawdry affair.

Why wasn’t Bowman relieved of his duties by the team?

Maybe it’s semantics, but resigning suggests Bowman was the author of his own destiny. That’s not what happened here. Maybe McDonough should have acted more expediently. But that Bowman did not follow up and did not push for the matter to be taken to police or otherwise addressed by the organization should have been ground for dismissal. Not stepping aside.

This is not accountability.

Similarly, the fact that USA Hockey announced late Tuesday that Bowman had stepped down from his role as GM of the U.S. men’s ice hockey team in Beijing in 2022 is also a bit disingenuous. The fact is USA Hockey could not have Bowman in this role at the Olympics and they should have said so in no uncertain terms. Again, semantics, but USA Hockey’s release says that Bowman informed USA Hockey that he was stepping down.

Again, this is not being held to account.  

As for other participants who are now employed by other franchises, Commissioner Bettman said he will be meeting with Florida head coach Joel Quenneville (who was head coach of the Blackhawks at the time) and Winnipeg GM Kevin Cheveldayoff (who was in his final days as an assistant GM in Chicago before taking on his current role as Winnipeg Jets GM).

Quenneville insisted he didn’t know anything about the assault allegations until after Aldrich left the team when asked about the incident when the investigation was made public. That assertion is contradicted by the investigation.

Why aren’t Cheveldayoff and Quenneville suspended from their duties until such a meeting takes place and the Commissioner publicly announces whether there will be further sanctions for their role in this shameful situation?

Certainly Quenneville’s role in this deserves the closest scrutiny. The report indicates that when senior team officials including Quenneville and Cheveldayoff met on the eve of the 2010 Stanley Cup Final to discuss how to proceed after being made aware of the sexual assault allegation by one of their players, Quenneville raised concerns about how the allegations and further attention drawn to them might impact preparing for the final series against Philadelphia.  

In fact nothing was done about the allegations for three weeks during which Aldrich traveled with the team. Then, after getting his Stanley Cup ring, he was given the option by the team to resign, which he did. And even after that Quenneville provided a glowing performance review for Aldridge following his resignation.

Cheveldayoff, who left the team shortly after the incident to take on his current role as Winnipeg GM, appears less culpable given that the report doesn’t indicate he had a role in the meeting. It should also be noted that Cheveldayoff is believed to have been co-operative with investigators.

Still, is this situation not serious enough to warrant more due diligence? And during that due diligence, surely it’s not too much to ask that these people be asked to step away from their jobs until the Commissioner is satisfied further sanctions aren’t required?

What of the Blackhawks players who have repeatedly denied knowledge of the incident and what was going on?

There are references in the report and in separate lawsuits to the victim ‘John Doe’ being harassed by some teammates about the incident. Still, no one stepped forward at the time and many players from that team who are still playing in the league insisted they only knew vague details if any at all.

There is no way to formally sanction those players who were aware of the assault. But shame on every one of them that stood by mute at the time and who didn’t have the gumption to step forward when this story broke some months ago, thanks to diligent work of investigative reporters in Chicago and Toronto.

As for making some sort of statement with its punishment of the organization the NHL’s $2 million fine would be laughable were this not such a critical issue and a critical time.

As society moves to pull these kinds of incidents from the shadows and encourage victims of all kinds to come forward the league’s fine sends a different message.

The Arizona Coyotes gave up a first-round and second-round draft pick for testing draft eligible players outside of the NHL’s rule. The New Jersey Devils were initially fined $3 million, a first-round draft pick and a third-round pick for the Ilya Kovalchuk contract.

Those were rules transgressions and you can argue those punishments were more severe than the one imposed on the Blackhawks.

This is the coverup of a sexual assault and the best the league could do was to fine the team roughly the revenue of one home game, with half of that money going to help local victims of abuse.

Why not five first-round picks over 10 years? Or five picks in five years? And a $20 million fine with $5 million or more committed to helping survivors of abuse?

How does any of what transpired Tuesday suggest we have moved forward from the time when it seemed perfectly normal for a group of men to sit around and decide it was too much trouble and would cause too much distraction to act on an allegation of sexual assault?

Well, at least the promise to share the details of the investigation with the public was upheld.

And the Blackhawks acknowledged publicly they had failed, current CEO Danny Wirtz saying “John Doe deserved better from the Blackhawks.”

He is right. And that is not nothing. But given all the questions that remain unanswered surrounding this whole unfortunate event we’re just not sure how much more than nothing it really is.